Tracy McGrady Says Magic Reached Out About Retiring His Jersey

Tracy McGrady may soon have his No. 1 jersey hanging in the rafters.

Speaking to Front Office Sports editor-in-chief Dan Roberts on an episode of Portfolio Players, McGrady said he’s heard from the Magic about the possibility of having his jersey retired in Orlando.

“I had conversations with personnel about—right when [Shaquille O’Neal] had his retired, they reached out to me,” McGrady said. O’Neal had his No. 32 jersey retired by the Magic in February 2024.

“I don’t know when it’s going to happen, if it’s going to happen, but they did reach out.” 

A spokesperson for the Magic confirmed to FOS that McGrady’s jersey retirement has been considered: “We have discussed future jersey retirements, including Tracy’s, but we currently do not have a timeline for any announcements.”

O’Neal is the only player whose jersey has been retired by the Magic, which joined the NBA as an expansion franchise in 1989. (No. 6 is also retired in Orlando for the fans, and the number was retired across the entire league in honor of Bill Russell in 2022.) 

McGrady, who was drafted by the Raptors out of high school with the No. 9 pick in 1997, played in Orlando from 2000 to 2004. He won Most Improved Player in 2001 and two scoring titles in 2003 and 2004. But the Magic failed to win a playoff series during his tenure, and he was traded to the Rockets in the summer of 2004.

He made three more All-Star appearances over 5½ seasons in Houston, where he paired with Yao Ming. But injuries kept the Rockets from making any postseason noise in the Western Conference.

McGrady, who was born and raised just outside Orlando, admitted that the Magic are the franchise he feels most closely associated with.

“I used to tell my mom as a teenager that I was going to be playing in that arena one day,” McGrady said of Amway Arena, where the Magic played until 2010. 

“When it was my time to be a free agent in Toronto, I got Miami recruiting me, I got Jerry Krause and the Bulls recruiting me, I got Orlando recruiting me. Orlando didn’t have to really recruit me because it was already manifested that this is where I wanted to go. … And I’m still invested and deep-rooted into Orlando Magic.”

McGrady retired in 2013 after 16 seasons. He currently serves as an NBA studio analyst for NBC Sports, founded the Ones Basketball League in 2022, and, this year, revived the ABCD Camp, a youth basketball program that helped him grow into a pro star.